Voice of the DBA

A series of episodes that look at databases and the world from a data professional's viewpoint. Written and recorded by Steve Jones, editor of SQLServerCentral and The Voice of the DBA.

Voice of the DBA is a technology podcast hosted by Steve Jones, with 100 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Steve Jones hosts Voice of the DBA, a technology show with 100 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #97

  Today's AI

  Oct 4, 20263 minS12

  "This is the worst version of the car you'll own." That was a quote from the delivery manager when my wife and I picked up our Lucid Gravity. He said that since the car is very software-oriented and gets regular over-the-air updates, the car keeps improving. The car I bought is the worst version because it keeps getting better. His experience over the last few years with the company has shown that the changes made in software result in customers growing more fond of their vehicles. Or maybe they're less annoyed by things that don't work well. Ah, the joys of software. Read the rest of Today's AI

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  Episode #96

  Development Is Fun

  Oct 1, 20263 minS12

  I was listening to The Pragmatic Engineer interview Casey Muratori about high-performance code, which I found really interesting. I'm actually considering going through his Performance Aware Programming series and (re)learning some assembly. I never thought I'd even consider doing that. I learned Assembly in high school and university, and I didn't enjoy it. Casey is a game programmer, and there was a question in the interview about how he uses AI tools in his work. "We are not using them " was not the answer I expected. Perhaps even more interesting was the rest of the answer. Casey loves programming and wants to enjoy what he does. He writes the code because he wants to do the work. If he didn't, he'd license some game engine or technology, not spend time getting an AI to do the work. Read the rest of Development Is Fun

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  Episode #98

  Smart AI Agents and Data Security

  Sep 29, 20263 minS12

  I don't know if Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google have really spent a lot of time and effort on security around their models. I know they talk about it ( Anthropic , OpenAI , Google ), but in practice, I'm not sure the researchers and testers are being as careful as the marketing and management of those companies want you to think. Gemini broke into three companies during a security test. Claude escaped a test environment and breached three organizations. OpenAI had breaches of Hugging Face and other sites , so perhaps this is the most powerful model, as it exceeded the "rule of three." In all these cases, the agents weren't doing anything amazing. These were acting the same as most malicious or bored human hackers who might find or guess credentials and take advantage of them. In some sense, this points to the generally poor state of security in the world. Read the rest of Smart AI Agents and Data Security

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  Episode #95

  You Need a DBA Pipeline

  Sep 29, 20263 minS12

  I work regularly with a number of customers on improving their database change processes. This has been the goal of Redgate's Database Change Management over the years, helping database systems work more like application software with DevOps principles. The idea is to move quicker, respond better to demands, while providing safety and governance. A database is a stateful machine, which is a challenge to evolve and maintain, but with good data modeling, testing, code analysis, and automation, your database change process can coexist with your application software. That being said, most of the solutions for managing database change focus on the database itself and everything inside it. After all, that's where the data is. I understand people wanting to solve that problem, but there are plenty of things that need to be managed for a database server (or instance for MSSQL) outside of the database. We have security, configuration, and in the case of SQL Server, jobs. That might be the number one request is a way to manage jobs across systems. Read the rest of You Need a DBA Pipeline

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  Episode #94

  Designing for Teams

  Sep 27, 20264 minS12

  Some years ago, I had to register for my medical benefits with Redgate. My employer had contracted with Anthem for health insurance, and I went to register myself. I found that not only could I not register myself, but there was already an account there with my tax number, and it was under my wife's account. Many years ago, she had health insurance with Anthem through another employer. Anthem kept her record, which includes my tax ID. So today, in 2026, I have to log into my Anthem account with her ID to see my plan. That's likely an older, legacy system, so we might understand that they didn't expect two people to be primary account holders over time, right? Well, we also have a more modern tax software system to deal with. Let's call the software "Chewit" to protect the reputation of the company. When we contracted with an accountant for services, they set up an account for me. However, my wife manages most of the money, so I asked them to add an account for her. Apparently, this "Chewit" business tax service only allows for one person in a household to have an account. This person has to manage the account, so now when my wife logs in with my account, I get a code, and I send it to her. If you think these are isolated, I have 3 or 4 other services that work like this, from well-known, global brands. Read the rest of Designing for Teams

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